I feel that middle school students should be aware of Einstiens theory of relativity by knowing these three branches, space, Speed of light, and motion.
Albert Einstien
Space- People before Einstien believed that the earth was measured by one big clock.
Speed of Light- The speed of light can not be the even.
Motion- Einstien describes motion moving at the speed of light.
Einstien's Theory of Relativity states that objects are moving close to the speed of light. the speed of light is very very fast. Here is an example: Lets say that you and i are on a train that has dark windows, so we aren't able to see out and it's sound proof so we aren't able to hear the train stop and start. Randomly the train starts to move but we don't know it. Einstien says that we would be moving so fast that it wouldn't seem like you are moving ar all.
Galileo simply described the fact that an observer in motion sees things differently from a stationary observer, because he has a different spatial coordinate system, or "reference frame".
Einstein's Relativity differs from classical relativity, because of the way he looked at time. Before Einstein, people thought time to be absolute, which is to say that one big clock measures the time for the entire universe. Consequently one hour on Earth would be one hour on Mars, or one hour in another galaxy. However, there was a problem with this concept. In an absolute time frame the speed of light cannot be constant. They found that the speed of light is finite and has a certain quantifiable velocity.
In 1881, A. Michelson conducted an experiment which proved that this is not the case. With the help of an apparatus that allowed measuring minute differences in the speed of light by changes in the resulting interference patterns, Michelson observed that the speed of light is always the same.
Works Cited
This website has more information on the theory of relativity. It describes the theory of paticles moving at a speed close to the speed of light. The website is credible because it is clear who the author is and you can contact who produced the site.
"Special and General Relativity Theory (Albert Einstein)." thebigview.com - Pondering the Big Questions. 1 Feb. 2009. 5 Feb. 2009 <http://www.thebigview.com/spacetime>.
"Theory: Special Relativity (SLAC VVC)." SLAC Public Website Server. 31 Oct. 2008. 5 Feb. 2009 <http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/relativity.html>.
Space- People before Einstien believed that the earth was measured by one big clock.
Speed of Light- The speed of light can not be the even.
Motion- Einstien describes motion moving at the speed of light.
Einstien's Theory of Relativity states that objects are moving close to the speed of light. the speed of light is very very fast. Here is an example: Lets say that you and i are on a train that has dark windows, so we aren't able to see out and it's sound proof so we aren't able to hear the train stop and start. Randomly the train starts to move but we don't know it. Einstien says that we would be moving so fast that it wouldn't seem like you are moving ar all.
Galileo simply described the fact that an observer in motion sees things differently from a stationary observer, because he has a different spatial coordinate system, or "reference frame".
Einstein's Relativity differs from classical relativity, because of the way he looked at time. Before Einstein, people thought time to be absolute, which is to say that one big clock measures the time for the entire universe. Consequently one hour on Earth would be one hour on Mars, or one hour in another galaxy. However, there was a problem with this concept. In an absolute time frame the speed of light cannot be constant. They found that the speed of light is finite and has a certain quantifiable velocity.
In 1881, A. Michelson conducted an experiment which proved that this is not the case. With the help of an apparatus that allowed measuring minute differences in the speed of light by changes in the resulting interference patterns, Michelson observed that the speed of light is always the same.
Works Cited
This website has more information on the theory of relativity. It describes the theory of paticles moving at a speed close to the speed of light. The website is credible because it is clear who the author is and you can contact who produced the site.
"Special and General Relativity Theory (Albert Einstein)." thebigview.com - Pondering the Big Questions. 1 Feb. 2009. 5 Feb. 2009 <http://www.thebigview.com/spacetime>.
"Theory: Special Relativity (SLAC VVC)." SLAC Public Website Server. 31 Oct. 2008. 5 Feb. 2009 <http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/relativity.html>.